Page 45 - Simply Veg 4 2022

I also mentioned last month that Chrysanths may have finished flowering. If they have not, they will be finishing soon, so cut them down and box them up as I said last month.
Congested clumps of perennial flowers can still be dug up and divided now so
if any need doing, do it now before the ground becomes frosty.
Some fruit trees and bushes can be pruned this month and continued through the winter. Apples can be “spur bearing” which means that the fruit is produced on short spurs along the branches. Just prune the side branches to three buds. Apples can also be “tip bearing” which means that the fruit is produced at the end of the branches. With these, cut back branches that don’t bear fruit buds.
Red and white currants and gooseberries are pruned the same way. Cut out branches growing towards the centre and prune the rest back by half. The branches you remove can be used for cuttings if you want to increase your stock. Cut them about 12 inches (30 cm.). Remove the bottom buds and plant them to half their depth in a trench with a layer of sand in the bottom.
With blackcurrants, cut down half of the fruited branches, leaving room for others to grow.
Still got early chrysanths in November
time from now till March. Cut out any crossing and diseased branches and prune the rest by about half to an outward pointing bud.
Another job in the fruit garden is to tidy the strawberry bed if you haven’t already done so.
Now that deciduous trees have lost most of their leaves, an important job is to collect the leaves to make leaf mould. If you have room, you could make an enclosure with wire netting supported by canes to store the leaves. Alternatively, you can put them in plastic sacks, which is what I do. I tie the bags up at the top but make some holes
in the side for ventilation. They take longer to rot down than other green material,
but they are a valuable source of organic matter to improve the soil.
You should still have crops to harvest but many will be finishing. If you still have root crops, it is worth harvesting some
and store them in case the ground is frosty when you need some. You could plant them temporarily in buckets of old compost and keep them somewhere frost free.
Continue clearing finished crops and putting them on the compost heap and clearing the ground. Talking of compost, I want to emphasise that it is important to make it properly. When made well, it is a valuable addition to the soil for forking in or for mulching. I have three compost bays and I fill up one at a time. I sprinkle some compost activator on every 6 inches (15cm (or so as it is being filled up. When a bay
is full, I leave it to rot down and start filling the next bay. When compost is rotting down it decreases in volume but I don’t keep adding more on top, I just leave it.
I keep one bay empty because, every so often I transfer the full bay into the empty one, which aerates it and helps the rotting process.
Rose bushes can also be pruned any
Compost bays, two full and one ready for use
Simply Vegetables 45